That Saturday Night Thing

The final show, after a run of just 16 episodes as Love Sport Radio focuses on sport and, in particular, on cutting costs. I talk less sport, more Brexit, climate change, internet echo chambers, the Trump child migrant scandal and crocodiles heading south.

People are, it seems, getting very angry about everything. Oxfam, for example, is now struggling to find the money to help Rohingya refugees because of outrage over workers enlisting prostitutes in Haiti. Tommy Robinson is winning widespread support in his anti-Muslim crusade. His supporters were out on the streets last week giving Nazi salutes. Two years since Jo Cox was murdered and the alt-right seems to be going from strength to strength.

Sports fan David Campbell admits Australia isn’t doing too well in sport at the moment. They must be cheating less. He also discusses the #fakemeat outrage, the destructive crazy yellow ant and mandatory English tests – what for the locals?

That Saturday Night Thing’s regular US correspondent Richard Kazimer talks through another week in the Trump dynasty. This week, pissing everyone off at the G7, a flimsy deal with Kim Jong Un, the treatment of child refugees, a family cashing in on the President and how Trump won the 2026 World Cup bid.

Oops! Fox News describing the summit in Singapore between Trump and Kin Jong Un as a meeting of the two dictators. Hang on, we haven’t got that page in the script yet! Have a listen …

This week Theresa May has to win over the rebel Tory MPs if she is to get her EU Withdrawal Bill over the line. So why is it so contentious? On Saturday night I attempted to explain the complex situation the Prime Minister has created for herself and, with the help of Bronwen Maddox from the Institute for Government, figure out what will happen next.

A look back at the 16th June in year gone by, from the world’s first Roller Coaster through to the foundation of the Women’s Institute. At 8 minutes long, no radio station ever spends this long on a ‘today in history’ segment – perhaps they have better things to talk about.

You want sovereignty, but you’ll be passing laws passed by elected MEPs to be amended by unseen civil servant sin Whitehall. You want control of our borders but are happy for our only land border with the EU to be as open as possible. You want fdemocracy but you don’t want the elected Tory rebels top act against what is declared ‘the will of the people’. It is, indeed, a confusing time to be a Brexiteer.

There are questions about what happens now to the Grenfell tower. Phil Dobbie asks Jonathan Werran, interim Chief Executive of Localis, about Grenfell’s fate and the shortfall in the government’s policies towards social housing. Jonathan points to Singapore, a country with an economy that is booming, with the vast majority of people living in government owned properties.

Lots on Grenfell one year on - how do we make social housing better and why do we have so little of it? Plus Brexit, the gridlock and how Theresa May's NHS announcement shows she is ready to side with the hardliners.

Brexit reaches the point of maximum confusion, why the Heathrow expansion makes little sense, the future for the High Street, another right royal weekend, Trump’s personal pardon and Australia’s #poojogger.

The Australian Prime Minister is the highest paid leader in the OECD. Surprised? So was David Campbell, who provides an update on the last week in the land down under, including the former deputy Prime Minister who has lowered himself to the point of accepted money from a TV station to tell-all about his affair with one of his staffers. And, is China buying New Zealand?

Who is winning from Trump’s tax cuts? Who will lose from his introduction of steel and aluminium tariffs last week? Richard Kazimer says one big winner is Trump himself, with his own business cashing in from having the boss in the White House.

As the Tory cabinet struggles to come up with a workable solution for the Northern Ireland Border, Phil Dobbie looks at who is doing the best out of the EU gravy train. Nigel Farage is making a mint out of pushing the anti-EU story, whilst taking a chunk of money from the organisation he dislikes so much. And as his tenure there is about to entitle him to the maximum possible EU pension, his timing to leave is impeccable.

Last week Italy looked set for re-elections and there were fears that, strengthened by the polls, the populist parties would push for an exit from the Eurozone, if not from the EU. It wasn’t helped when President Sergio Matterella decided Carlo Cottarelli was going to head the new government – an unelected prime minister who is nicknamed Mr. Scissors, because he likes to make budget cuts. This week things seem to have calmed down, but Prof Steve Keen says we shouldn’t forget the underlying cause of the disquiet – the Euro. And the problems of a unified currency in Europe haven’t gone away.

It’s shocking how (predominantly Asian) grooming gangs are raping young girls as young as 11 or 12. But Tommy Robinson wasn’t arrested as a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was arrested for potentially causing a mistrial. More importantly, if he is so concerned about child rape, why wouldn’t he be campaigned for the considerably larger number of children raped by friends and relatives – could it be because most of those perpetrators are not Muslim?

Mike Brown, the commissioner of Transport for London, said last week he felt the Cycle Superhighways in London had been an ill-judged rush and the result has been too much congestion and problems for other vehicles. Not so, says Fran Graham, campaigns coordinators for the London Cycling Campaign.Sorry about the dodgy phone line!

What will be the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on iron and steel imports from Canada, Mexico and the EU – as well as the existing impost on goods from China. Phil Dobbie talks to Douglas Irwin, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, author of Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy, and numerous other books on international trade and protectionism.

Who will win Trump's trade war and who will win Britain's Got Talent? Where London's cycle routes built too quickly? Was Parmageddon the start of the end of the Euro? Which world leader is paid th emost? And what's Trump up to now?

We need to raise taxes to pay for the NHS. Or can we just make it more efficient. Here are some ideas from Phil Dobbie, Clayton Christensen and John Seddon (from Vanguard Consulting).